The Hankewich family needs your help

Hi, my name is Elicia and I am fundraising for my sister, brother-in-law, niece and nephew who are all going through my brother-in-laws second round of cancer treatments; this time, it is not curable. One toddler, one newborn (born late March), multiple trips to the hospital that is 2.5hrs away, mounting pain management costs and the impossible task of operating a farm means their finances are being seriously tested. They need money to support their family through another farming season and keep up with the pain management for Todd while he is in palliative care with bone cancer.

If you have time, I would love to tell you their story..

My younger sister, Brittany and her husband Todd have been together for just under a decade and they both knew very early on that they were meant to be together. They both lived together in their humble farmhouse 2.5hrs from Saskatoon, SK and work tirelessly on farming and creating a life for themselves. They were fortunate enough to make such a wonderful group of friends in rural Saskatchewan and things were seemingly going perfectly. My sister found out that she was pregnant in early 2019 with their first child and everyone was overjoyed, especially Todd's dad, the self-proclaimed baby hog. They brought my beautiful niece into this world in November of 2019 and only a few months later, Todd lost his father to cancer. Not even a month later, February 2020,Todd was admitted to the hospital in Saskatoon as he was having dizzy spells, intense migraines and feeling very unwell. After multiple scans they found Todd had a kiwi-sized brain tumour and needed to perform emergency surgery to remove it. My niece was only a few months old at this point. His surgeon and nurses were incredible and they managed to remove all of the tumour; however, since this was in the brain they recommend that he endure an intense round of chemotherapy and radiation all down his spine that started in April 2020. So, instead of Todd being able to have energy and time to spend with his brand new baby, he was in a lot of pain, tired, unwell and weak. This was challenging to watch because you saw this young (29 at the time), strong, tall, farmer move around like he had aged 50 years.

Since they were living on the farm and all their income came from the success of that, their friends stepped in to farm their land and the land of Todd's late father, Jim for that season. This certainly helped Todd and Brittany with additional income for the year as they spent most of their time back and forth from the farm to Saskatoon for appointments which totalled in a 434km round trip each time with an infant and a very uncomfortable Todd.

After 30 treatments in Saskatoon and 1 year later of Brittany holding her new little family together, they got the amazing news that there was no trace of the cancer. Relief came over them, the sky was brighter, my sister would be ok, have her husband by her side and they could continue to build the life they dreamed of for themselves and their daughter.

During all of this, Todd attributed a lot of his strength and happiness during those times to his daughter, Avery. Avery was the light that everyone needed. She constantly made cute noises that turned into endless chatter and grew quite the personality that kept the laughter coming. It was no surprise that shortly after receiving this news, they were desperate to grow their family yet again. Unfortunately, as Todd's cancer came on so quickly, they did not have enough time to secure fertility treatment as this was likely the only way they would get pregnant again due to chemotherapy. After many months and multiple rounds of testosterone therapy for Todd, they were told that it was very unlikely to have another child. Fortunately, my sister already knew something that none of us did--she was 9 days late so she couldn't wait to take a test to see if they could be so lucky...and they were! We were all so happy for them, this was their miracle baby.

This happiness was overshadowed not even two months later as Todd was experiencing extreme rib pain, they did a scan to reveal that his rib was fractured from a suspicious spot that had appeared. Todd had cancer, again but this time it was only treatable, not curable. Brittany was absolutely devastated. The second they are flooded with complete happiness; they are struck with a gut-wrenching fear that they would have to endure this all over again. This happened late summer of 2022, only 1 short year after recovering from Todd’s first cancer.

This time around, it took 2 months to find out what type of cancer Todd was fighting. The biopsy was being investigated by teams in Saskatchewan and Ontario with little success. Our family pushed for treatment in the US to expedite the process. Luckily, the doctor in the US confirmed the type of cancer and worked with the doctors in Saskatoon to start an oral treatment plan of chemotherapy. By this time the Cancer had metastasized in multiple spots throughout his back and neck causing a great amount of pain. Due to the short time between his last cancer Todd’s bone marrow had decreased significantly leaving him with very limited radiation options.

October 2022 marked the beginning of his oral chemotherapy treatments. He also underwent 10 radiation treatments starting November 2022 to the soft tissue mass that originally fractured his rib. With the cancer residing in his bones, Todd was in a great deal of pain resulting in intense treatment in palliative care that requires frequent monitoring.

In late March 2023 they welcomed their miracle baby, Troy into this world and Todd got to be by Brittany’s side to share in the joy as his pain was managed that day. Todd has good and bad days with his pain management. On a good day, he can stay awake for a while and spend time doing low energy tasks with his daughter, like puzzles, snuggling on the couch and enjoying meals with her. On his bad pain days, he spends most of it resting on the couch so he can be closer to his family. He has also been in and out of the hospital managing his pain with some serious narcotics. He is still undergoing oral chemotherapy treatments and will continue to do so until they need to readjust to another form.

Balancing treatment in the hospital and quality family time at home requires a return journey of 434kms multiple times per month. Managing the needs of the farm, family, medical costs and additional travel time with another year unable to farm the bills are adding up. Brittany and Todd need support to offset their farm income and help them through this challenging time.

Thank you for taking the time to read this small snapshot of Todd & Brittany’s life during these past couple of years and if you know them both, please reach out as they would appreciate the support and thank you to all who can contribute a small donation.